Mirah 

Joyride: Remixes(K Records)

Clearly, Mirah  works well with others. The former Microphones member collaborated with a different producer or DJ on each track of her latest, to great success. All her friends, it seems, tried their best to retain her essence (you know, Talmud-referencing, nature-loving, war-hating, lotus-sitting, vegan-cupcake-eating, bike-riding, commune-living, etc.), and their remixes add a welcome layer of complexity to her often basic syntax. The opening track, ‘The Light’, remixed by Hooliganship, is a clear standout and testament to the available power of rearrangement. The exception to this album’s rule of goodness is the last song, ‘Jerusalem: Chopped and Screwed Mix by Y.A.C.H.T’. The original is precarious enough — really only Mirah, in her unfaltering earnestness (sometimes bordering on total oblivion), could pull off singing: “So now Jerusalem, you know that it’s not right.  After all you’ve been through, you should know better” without receiving heaps of hate mail. But here, her voice is so heavily distorted and the beat so tedious that no hippies drinking Coke on a mountaintop, teaching the world to sing in perfect                                                                                                               harmony would touch it. So, skip the last track for a great listen.

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